Chamber and committees

Mr Bibby, do you have a supplementary question in that area?

Our second agenda item is our—hopefully pleasant—inquiry into culture in communities. We welcome back Angus Robertson, the Cabinet Secretary for Constitution, External Affairs and Culture, who is joined by Lisa Baird, deputy director of cultural access organisations in the Scottish Government. I invite the cabinet secretary to make an opening statement.

I invite questions from members, starting with Mr Ruskell.

Mr Bibby has a supplementary.

The cabinet secretary has been talking recently about GlobalScots and the importance of networks. There is no performance indicator for international networks. Can you give us a feeling of where we stand in that area? Could a measurement as to the effect of those networks be applied?

I invite questions from Mr Ruskell, who is joining us remotely. [Interruption.] I hope that he is about to join us.

Does anyone else want to talk about the challenges?

Thank you very much. I now open up the meeting to questions from colleagues, and I invite Mr Bibby to go first.

Good morning, and a warm welcome to the 20th meeting in 2023 of the Constitution, Europe, External Affairs and Culture Committee.

We have received apologies from Maurice Golden MSP. Our colleague Mark Ruskell joins us remotely.

Our first agenda item is a decision on taking business in private. Are members content to take agenda item 3 in private?

Members indicated agreement.

We have talked about many of the successes—the whisky industry was mentioned earlier—but do small and medium-sized enterprises have a different challenge from the more established businesses?